English Dub Review: From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman “The Old Country Bumpkin Takes Flight With a Monster”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

To protect the new adventurers, Beryl faces off against a dangerous monster.  Unlike other opponents, it acts on instinct, and he’s drawn into a ferocious battle, unable to get a read on its moves.  Later on, he faces an encounter that will turn his future upside down.

Our Take:

Beryl’s adventurer training with the rookies immediately went from peaceful to dangerous due to the appearance of a high-level monster.  I always hated it when powerful monsters spoil the fun of adventuring.  This creature, known as the Zeno Grable, injured one of the rookie adventurers, resulting in Beryl battling it himself.  Initially, he intended to allow Surena to distract the winged beast while tending to an injured adventurer, but that plan changed when Surena decided to keep the adventurers safe.  In short, Beryl once again got the short end of the stick, which is a price to pay for being the master swordsman.  If Surena wanted to impress Beryl that much, she should’ve taken charge of fighting the monster instead.  Fortunately, she compensated for that mistake by helping Beryl kill the Zeno Grable at the last minute and giving him the credit.

Unfortunately for Beryl, he broke his sword during the fight, leading him and his students to visit the blacksmith to get it replaced.  However, the blacksmith happens to be another former student of Beryl’s, Balder Gasp.  The show has the usual route of the protagonist’s former students being all women, similar to I Left My A-Rank Party, so this moment involving a male character like Balder as one of Beryl’s students took me by surprise.  Additionally, the episode showcased Beryl training Curuni to master her new two-handed sword she got from Balder, utilizing the show’s CGI animation like the first episode.  Like my experience with the first episode, I think the moment between Beryl and Curuni would’ve looked less uncanny if it stuck with the 2D animation.  Even though it’s not as horrendous as the CGI for the second season of The Misfit of Demon King Academy, it still looked a tad sluggish compared to the Zeno Grable sequence in the first half.

“The Old Country Bumpkin Takes Flight With a Monster” only features two moments that helped elevate its laid back plot.  One was Beryl’s fight with the Zeno Grable, and the other moment involved Beryl facing another threat in the capital.  Instead of a monster or a wizard, he’ll be dealing with some lowly, ordinary thugs, with a particular girl named Mewi falling into the wrong crowd.  Of course, like all of us, Beryl doesn’t take too kindly with thieves.